miner Raffaello Carboni on his
second trip to Ballarat at Easter 1854. The Ballarat correspondent to the Geelong
Advertiser reminisced in July 1854 about the old days when the adventurous ladies
who had come to see the diggings were welcomed with three cheers. Now, he sighed,
the coach brings up its hundreds of the fair sex, and not a solitary cheer greets
its arrival .
RAFFAELLO CARBONI
THE BIOGRAPHER OF THE REBELLION
----
DIDN’T FIRE A GUN BUT HE WAS IN IT UP TO HIS ARMPITS
BORN Urbino, Italy, 1817
DIED Rome, 1875
ARRIVED 1852
AGE AT EUREKA 37
CHILDREN Never married. No children
FAQ Italian revolutionary and freedom fighter. Writer and master of many languages.
Used as a translator on the goldfields. Was not in the Stockade, but he wrote a full-length
book published on the first anniversary.
ARCHIVE The Eureka Stockade , 1855.
When William Howitt arrived at the goldfields in 1852, the fair sex seemed to be
doing all right. There are some hugely fat women on the diggings , he wrote, the life
seems to suit them . They appeared to enjoy the outdoor existence, adapting to its
conditions and dressing in practical clothes fit for hard work. A wide awake hat,
neat fitting jacket, handsome dress , observed Howitt: a costume quite made for the
diggings .
It needed to be. In the mornings, Howitt saw women and girls hanging out the wash,
cooking over campfires and chopping wood with great axes which swung them . They
kept chickens and goats. These diggeresses , he concluded, provided a certain stationary
substratum beneath the fluctuating surface .
In other words, women had quietly become the bedrock of the Victorian mining communities.
Englishman William Kelly, who had written books about the Californian goldfields,
said the Ballarat diggings were remarkable for the large proportion of women . Only
3% to 10% of the Californian ‘forty-niners’ were female, clearly a much smaller proportion
than in Victoria. So whereas the Californian digger had to roast, grind and boil
his own coffee , said Kelly, the Victorian, who is surrounded with women, would be
saved all that bother. Kelly neglected to inform his readers that most women charged
for their highly prized services.
On the downside: the most callous specimens of the female creation I ever encountered
were mere green pulp in comparison with some of the granite-grained viragoes of the
goldfields. Kelly obviously preferred the dewy maidens of the old country to the
sun-baked matrons who tried their luck under the Southern Cross.
Other observers also noted that the average diggeress did not much resemble an English
rose. Lovely, blooming maidens , as Howitt put it, soon withered in the harsh Australian
climate. As their worlds opened up, women’s skin wrinkled, and pale, soft complexions
became weathered. Shelter and security were exchanged for opportunity. It was a trade-off
that many were only too happy to make.
LADY LUCK
In these early years of the gold rush, mining required little capital outlay. Small
claims could be pursued by individual miners. Technical know-how and even physical
strength were not absolutely necessary.
William Kelly was one of the first commentators to note the everyday sight of women
engaged in hands-on mining. Out walking around the Eureka lead one morning in early
1854, Kelly spied fossickers of the female sex at work, and these, too, of the diminutive
degree both as to age and size . You can sense that Kelly longed to mock these mining
maids, as was his inclination, but he stopped himself.
And here I must do the women the justice of remarking that their industry was accompanied
with a decency of garb and demeanour which elicited respect and went to prove that
becoming employment engenders respectability of feeling and healthy appetites.
Working-class women, of course, had always worked. What Kelly found remarkable was
the presence of ‘decent’ women performing acts of industry.
It was just another sign of the adaptability that
second trip to Ballarat at Easter 1854. The Ballarat correspondent to the Geelong
Advertiser reminisced in July 1854 about the old days when the adventurous ladies
who had come to see the diggings were welcomed with three cheers. Now, he sighed,
the coach brings up its hundreds of the fair sex, and not a solitary cheer greets
its arrival .
RAFFAELLO CARBONI
THE BIOGRAPHER OF THE REBELLION
----
DIDN’T FIRE A GUN BUT HE WAS IN IT UP TO HIS ARMPITS
BORN Urbino, Italy, 1817
DIED Rome, 1875
ARRIVED 1852
AGE AT EUREKA 37
CHILDREN Never married. No children
FAQ Italian revolutionary and freedom fighter. Writer and master of many languages.
Used as a translator on the goldfields. Was not in the Stockade, but he wrote a full-length
book published on the first anniversary.
ARCHIVE The Eureka Stockade , 1855.
When William Howitt arrived at the goldfields in 1852, the fair sex seemed to be
doing all right. There are some hugely fat women on the diggings , he wrote, the life
seems to suit them . They appeared to enjoy the outdoor existence, adapting to its
conditions and dressing in practical clothes fit for hard work. A wide awake hat,
neat fitting jacket, handsome dress , observed Howitt: a costume quite made for the
diggings .
It needed to be. In the mornings, Howitt saw women and girls hanging out the wash,
cooking over campfires and chopping wood with great axes which swung them . They
kept chickens and goats. These diggeresses , he concluded, provided a certain stationary
substratum beneath the fluctuating surface .
In other words, women had quietly become the bedrock of the Victorian mining communities.
Englishman William Kelly, who had written books about the Californian goldfields,
said the Ballarat diggings were remarkable for the large proportion of women . Only
3% to 10% of the Californian ‘forty-niners’ were female, clearly a much smaller proportion
than in Victoria. So whereas the Californian digger had to roast, grind and boil
his own coffee , said Kelly, the Victorian, who is surrounded with women, would be
saved all that bother. Kelly neglected to inform his readers that most women charged
for their highly prized services.
On the downside: the most callous specimens of the female creation I ever encountered
were mere green pulp in comparison with some of the granite-grained viragoes of the
goldfields. Kelly obviously preferred the dewy maidens of the old country to the
sun-baked matrons who tried their luck under the Southern Cross.
Other observers also noted that the average diggeress did not much resemble an English
rose. Lovely, blooming maidens , as Howitt put it, soon withered in the harsh Australian
climate. As their worlds opened up, women’s skin wrinkled, and pale, soft complexions
became weathered. Shelter and security were exchanged for opportunity. It was a trade-off
that many were only too happy to make.
LADY LUCK
In these early years of the gold rush, mining required little capital outlay. Small
claims could be pursued by individual miners. Technical know-how and even physical
strength were not absolutely necessary.
William Kelly was one of the first commentators to note the everyday sight of women
engaged in hands-on mining. Out walking around the Eureka lead one morning in early
1854, Kelly spied fossickers of the female sex at work, and these, too, of the diminutive
degree both as to age and size . You can sense that Kelly longed to mock these mining
maids, as was his inclination, but he stopped himself.
And here I must do the women the justice of remarking that their industry was accompanied
with a decency of garb and demeanour which elicited respect and went to prove that
becoming employment engenders respectability of feeling and healthy appetites.
Working-class women, of course, had always worked. What Kelly found remarkable was
the presence of ‘decent’ women performing acts of industry.
It was just another sign of the adaptability that
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